What is Ulysses Syndrome?

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What is Ulysses Syndrome?
Thanks for asking.
You may remember hearing about ancient Greek hero Ulysses in school lessons. He's the central character in Homer's Odyssey. As legend goes, after fighting for a decade in the Trojan War, Ulysses wandered the world for another 10 years before getting back home to his wife and son. On his enforced travels, he suffered danger, adversity and loneliness throughout. Well, Spanish psychiatrist Joseba Achotegui saw similarities in the plight of modern-day migrants. In 2003, he came up with the term Ulysses Syndrome To describe the negative feelings that such scenarios can bring on, these ordinary people often have no choice but to behave like heroes. Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration? The World Migration Report showed that in 2020, there were 280 million migrants across the world, accounting for an impressive 3.6 percent of the global population. Living in a new country can require a lot of adaptability and psychological strength. Of course, some migration conditions are a lot tougher than others. Moving to another country for a better life or for a job opportunity isn't the same as having to flee a war. But in this day and age, a significant proportion of migration takes place as a result of conflict, volatility and suffering. According to the UN's Human Rights Commission, the number of forcibly displaced people in the world is higher than it has ever been. As of 2016, there were 22.5 million refugees, 40.3 million internally displaced and 2.8 million asylum seekers. Over half of those people came from Syria, Afghanistan or South Sudan. More recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced millions of Ukrainians from their homes. Many countries simply don't have the resources to properly process and support all the migrants arriving in their territory. So the migrants end up having to fend for themselves, with little in the way of material assistance.
In such conditions, you can only salute those people's bravery. What negative feelings are we talking about then?
Researchers have been eager to clarify that Ulysses syndrome is a normal response to an extreme situation. Rather than a mental health disorder, migration leads to certain situations which can bring on feelings of loneliness and despair. These include being separated from loved ones, losing social status and finding oneself surrounded by an unfamiliar culture, perhaps unable to understand the language people are speaking. Then there are more physical factors too, like the climate, surroundings and the dangerous situations that forcibly displace people often find themselves in. All of this can overwhelm people's psychological coping mechanisms. Symptoms of Ulysses syndrome include stress and anxiety, feeling like an outsider, constant sadness and yearning for home, isolating from everyone else in the new environment and poor self-esteem. This can have knock-on effects, bringing on physical health problems like nausea, migraines and shortness of breath. With Ulysses syndrome being a stress response and not pathological, people who suffer from it usually return to their normal state of mind after those stressors have disappeared. There you have it.